My wife and I are moving into a new apartment, and so we’ve been busy doing all sorts of new apartment things: finding a painter and handyman, purchasing appliances, choosing an Internet provider, hiring a mover, and so on. At almost every step, we’ve used our iPhones – and more specifically, Facebook – to do … Continue reading Local E-Commerce
December 2015 was a record month for Ben and me, in terms of page views on Silicon Spatula. We leveraged Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, word-of-mouth, and sympathy clicks from our parents to grow our monthly hits from just a few dozen a month to something much larger. However, as I’ve written, metrics remove, to a certain … Continue reading Page Views
In 2003, my father used the CD-RW burner on his computer to make me an MP3 disc of all 217 songs in The Beatles formal canon. “That’s right,” I remember telling my friends, “200 songs, one CD.” I took a distinct pride in my amalgamated collection of the Fab Four’s recordings, scoffing at those who only … Continue reading The Fab Four, Now Streaming
The other day, Spotify sent me my annual year-end recap, where it tallied up the time I spent listening to music (17,000 minutes), and the number of individual tracks I’d listened to: 1,307. Spotify tells me that I’m a big fan of the Rolling Stones (1,038 plays) and Punch Brothers (458). I compared notes with … Continue reading Metrics
It’s sad to see an app shut down, especially one as popular as Mailbox, the email app that pioneered the idea of an app waiting list “swipe to snooze” functionality. On to Outlook, I suppose. Continue reading Swipe Right to Delete
As I’ve written, Yahoo!’s future is murky, it may be acquired, and it exists in a sort of funny kind of limbo. It’s a phenomenally popular site with hundreds of millions of visitors, and yet, most of its value is locked up in its partial stake in Alibaba, and to a lesser extent, Tumblr and … Continue reading No Second Acts
Carmakers have announced the list of 2016 models that will feature dashboard displays that are compatible with iPhones. Given how much I use my iPhone for navigation, music and podcasts in the car, I feel as though CarPlay may well factor into my decision the next time I’m in the market for a new set of … Continue reading CarPlay in ’16
Somebody is spending quite a bit of money on Google Ads keywords. Continue reading Ah, Google Ads
The Atlantic has a neat story about the increasing number of marathoners, and the corresponding increase in users of running apps. The apps can help runners find camaraderie with one another, but can also remove running’s stripped-down, essential nature. As a longtime MapMyRun user, I found that the article particularly resonant. Especially the following: “It has a … Continue reading Running with Tech
I’m an active runner, and I’m pretty committed to tracking my excursions. I’ve used MapMyRun for about two years, but just downloaded Strava in order to kick the tires a bit. There are dedicated running watches from Suunto, Garmin, and others, but, as I’ve written before, I’m hesitant about investing in one-use devices, especially when … Continue reading Running with the Apple Watch
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